Name: ____________________________________________________
King Lear (Shakespeare)
Act I
Literary elements ( all of the elements or parts of a story)
Setting -- the time and place in which the story happens
Time: _______________________________________________________
Place: _______________________________________________________
Protagonist – the main character
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Antagonist – the character or force that goes against the protagonist (main character)
hint: there may be more than one.
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Conflict – a problem or struggle
External Conflict – the main character struggles with another person or with an
outside force, like nature or rules
person vs. society -- the values and customs by which everyone else lives are
being challenged
Edmund:
Thou, nature, art my goddess. To thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,” “base” –
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to the’ creating a whole tribe of fops
Got ‘tween a sleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.
Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate. – Fine word, “legitimate”! –
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th’ legitimate. I grow, I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
(Act I, scene ii, lines 1 – 22)
Person
Who is involved?
What is the problem?
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vs
Society/rules
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Theme – the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work; they often have to do
with widely held human concerns such as love, death, justice, happiness, etc.; the
big idea that a story conveys about life
Authority vs. Chaos -- the power to influence the behaviors of others vs. complete
confusion and disorder
This theme is introduced in Act I and will be developed in the following Acts.
Lear: Corwall and Albany,
With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third.
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Preeminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights
By you to be sustained, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only shall we retain
The name, and all th’ additions to a king.
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved son, be yours; which to confirm,
This coronet part between you.
(Act I, scene I, lines 127 – 139)
What has King Lear done? ________________________________________________________
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How will this tie into the theme of authority vs chaos ? (Make a prediction) _______________
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Cordelia:
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,
Who covers faults at last with shame derides.
May you prosper. ..... (Act I, scene 1, lines 282-284)
Goneril:
Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly
appertains to us both. …… (Act I, scene I, lines 286-287)
You see how full of changes his age is. The observation we
have made of it hath not been little. He always loved our
sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast
her off appears too grossly. …. (Act I, scene I, lines 289-292)
… If our father
carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last
surrender of his will but offend us.
Reagan:
We shall further think on ‘t.
Goneril:
We must do something, and I’ th’ heat.
(Act I, scene i; lines 303-307)
Goneril:
…Idle old man
that still would manage those authorities
that he hath given away!........ (Act I, scene 3; lines 16 – 18)
How does Goneril feel about her father? ____________________________________________
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How do you think she plans to use her new authority? ________________________________
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Literary Techniques/ Devices
( tools used by an author to
improve their writing)
Foreshadowing – an author’s use of hints or clues to suggest events that will occur later in
the story. Not all foreshadowing is obvious. Frequently, future events are merely hinted
analogy --the act of comparing two things that are alike in some way
In Act I, scene iv, Shakespeare uses an analogy to foreshadow future events.
Fool: For you know, nuncle,
the hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
That it had it head bit off by it young.
So out went the candle and we were left darkling.
(Act I, scene iv; lines 196 – 199)
Who is the hedge-sparrow? ________________________________________
Who are the cuckoo? _____________________________________________________
What does this analogy imply, or foreshadow, will happen in the future? ___________________
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